Comparing Women In The Knight's Tale And The Wife Of Bath

In this time period, there was a mentality that existed where a woman was made more honorable or a better person just by having a husband. When Juliet was hesitant to even think of being married to Paris, her mother and nurse were surprised. It was unheard of to be a woman and not want to be married. This is shown when the nurse and Lady Capulet tell Juliet “By having him, making yourself no less.”

Janie’s grandmother, Nanny, forces Janie to marry a man she is not in love with out of convenience. Nanny does not want Janie to suffer the necessities of life, but Janie cares little about materials and seeks love. Nanny’s ideology haunts Janie for much of her life, influencing decisions she takes later in marriage. Huston says, “The memory of Nanny was still powerful and strong,” which shows how Janie conforms to the ideology her grandmother instilled in her. And although Janie conforms, she continues to question inwardly about love.

The so-called “American Dream” to be more individualistic rather than a collectivistic community like the British Empire didn’t follow through with women’s rights. Martha Ballard’s profession is then reduced by William Smellie as “he explained the importance of reassuring both the patient and her “friends”,” (65). This shows that males couldn’t conceive the idea of respecting women’s work and treating them as professionals. However, this also shows the apparent disconnect between male physicians and their patients.

A thorough analysis of The Greats Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, demonstrate a woman named Daisy is pressured to act according to the current era ethics. Daisy is portrayed as an ideal woman from a quick glance, however she is far from the current norm and she contains flaws that do not come from the mold a woman is expected to be shaped from in the modern era. It becomes conspicuous in a statement from Gatsby that Daisy priorities wealth over love. “’She never loved you, do you hear?’ he cried.

In 1692 Salem Massachusetts, social power and status was dominated by male figures that could prove and constantly defend their strict moral purity. Power came from reputation, and reputation was defined in the eyes of God. Woman on the other hand held virtually no social power until marriage, and even then were considered voiceless in the social hierarchy. Girls held the least power in the social order, representing a financial burden to their families that needed to be repaid in the role of servant. Betty Parris, however defies this social order.

Marriage is the turn where women lose their own individuality and become dependent and under the control of men. During a conversation with Anna, she says how she is dependent on David after marriage. Anna’s is crucial after her marriage, as, she could not act according to her own will. The narrator says about marriage as, “But marriage was like Monopoly or doing crossword puzzles, either your mind didn’t. A small neutral country” (111).

When Queen Marie Antoinette defied these normalities and refused to comply to the public’s standards and demands, they disapproved and thought poorly of her. Thus, French society misinterpreted Antoinette’s self-confidence

In Othello, Desdemona has noticed a change of how Othello feels towards her. Othello has been so controlled by Iago that he considers “a man of honesty and trust” (I.iii.284), which lead him to doubt Desdemona’s faithfulness. Desdemona even wonders if a woman “would do such a deed for all the world” (IV.iii.65). Desdemona felt that all women in her society would never confront their husbands due to fear that was installed in them. Emalia explains to Desdemona that there are certainly women who would be unfaithful to their husbands.

She explains that “a women at a certain age not married is considered a deep personal failure, but a man who is unmarried they think he just hasn 't come around to making his pick.” In society, we hold different standards for both male and female this is were feminists demand for equality plays a vital role. In addition, Adichie explains how when she was a teacher she was not worried about the material she would teach; instead she was worried about the professional female appearance she would have to uphold. She claims if she looked more serous and perfusion all she would be more respected but the males in the class. Based off this topic many might say, well the way women dress is a power they have.

In ancient times, which in this analogy will be referred to as the shadows on the wall in Plato’s cave, women were seen as inherently inferior to men, and their only role was to get married and have children. Men owned women, they were passed down from their father’s possession to their husband’s possession, as symbolized in the traditional isle-walking during marriage, and dowries almost always being needed for marriage. The old sentiment was, that nobody wanted previously “used” property. In addition, because there was no contraception and heritage decided your level of respect in the community, virginity was a guaranteed paternity test. But of course, all these reasons for the invention of virginity pale in comparison to religion.

A woman during the Enlightenment period was not accepted in pure academics, but they could find education from somewhere else, and they could have risks for searching for education. A woman during the Enlightenment period was not accepted in pure academics. A woman was not accepted in academics mainly because men believed woman were ignorant and would not be capable of understanding what man learn. Men at this time believed that women should only attend classes on how to become a perfect housewife to their husbands. The first image of this is seen when Madame du Chatelet was excluded from the Royal Academy of Sciences.

In the book “First Generations Women in Colonial America” by Carol Berkin explains to us how women back then were treated differently from now. They experienced awful situations. Carol explains that back then men thought that’s their wives were considered as their land. Men believed that once they married a woman that they could do anything to them and treat them the way they wanted. Men had no respect to women.

Essentially, marriage in the 1700’s was seen merely as a means of birthing heirs and finding a way to financially support yourself, so it resulted in both men and women being devalued. It is universally known that women were often treated as inept and helpless rather than sophisticated people with autonomy and capabilities. In fact, during this time, “married women were consistently compared with minor children and the insane-- both categories of people considered incapable of caring for themselves. To marry a woman was, in one sense, to ‘adopt’ her-- or at least to adopt responsibility for all the circumstances of life with which she entered the marriage” (Teachman 39). Furthermore, when women got married, they would legally cease to exist.

Women in Elizabethan England, were not treated with as much respect as they should have been, but they were not treated as if they were not human beings. They were typically seen to be the weaker sex, mentally and physically and were thought to need a male figure constantly watching over them. If a woman was single, she was usually watched after by a father or an older brother, but if the woman was married it would be her husband’s job to take after her. Men were the ones that brought home the money. They were the head of the home and in charge of most decisions that took place.

In the colonial era, women did not have many rights, and people did not consider them as equals to men, especially in Puritan New England where the Puritan beliefs governed society. Society expected women to get married, have children, and obey their husbands; they considered anything outside of these limitations as radical confrontations to the law. The woman’s main contribution to society was to teach the young girls about the customs and appropriate behaviors of a woman (Jolliffe, Roskelly, 242.45). Strict barriers existed in a woman’s life, and if a woman were to break those boundaries, like Anne Hutchinson - a revolutionary Puritan spiritual advisor - did, critics accused them of being non-compliant and harmful to society. They considered